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Patch Notes: May 31, 2017

Read more about the in-depth changes for May's big balance patch.

Patch Overview

New

  • Leaderboards

Improved

  • Opponent AI
  • The Codex now includes all Elite units
  • Map changes
  • Balance update (multiplayer only, balance changes do not apply to the campaign)


General

Gameplay

  • Cooldown of all Super Abilities (Orbital Bombardment, Eldritch Storm, and Rokks) increased from 5 minutes to 7.5 minutes
  • Base Requisition rate increased from 260 per minute to 340 per minute
  • Base Turret damage reduced from 50 to 12.5 with each player in the game increasing that damage by 12.5 (i.e. 1v1 = 25 damage; 2v2 = 37.5 damage; 3v3 = 50 damage)
  • Turret primary weapon damage reduced from 40 to 15 with each player in the game increasing that damage by 6.25 (1v1 = 21.25 damage; 2v2 = 27.5 damage; 3v3 = 33.75 damage) 

Escalation Phases

  • Phase 1: Increased refund on unit loss from 25% to 35%
  • Phase 2: Increased refund on unit loss from 15% to 25%
  • Phase 4: Decreased resource rate bonus from 50% to 25%

Maps

  • A 1v1 variant of Mork's Mire has been added into the Custom match and Quick-Match map lists
  • A 3v3 variant of Crucible of Vaul has been added into the Custom match and Quick-Match map lists
  • Stratum P2-8: Removed a Power Node from the middle Resource Point at the center of the map
  • Stratum P2-8: Added a Requisition add-on to the middle Resource Point near each base

Space Marines

Servitor

Bug fixes


BUG FIXES

  • Fixed an issue where Servitors could see over some sight blockers

Tactical Marine

Damage has been boosted across the board, as well as a decrease in reinforcement costs

We agree with the community that Tactical Marines are under performing relative to other starting units. Though they scale more strongly than their counterparts and have potent upgrades, these came at an additional cost.

  • Reinforcement cost of Tactical Marine upgrades reduced from 75% of upgrade cost to 25%
Ranged Damage: 
2.85

4

Melee Damage: 
4.6

5.5

Flamer Upgrade

Reinforcement Cost: 
71  / 7 

63  / 2 


Plasma Gun Upgrade

Reinforcement Cost: 
75  / 9 

65  / 3 



BUG FIXES

  • Fixed a bug that doubled the reinforcement cost of Tactical Marines when they were Overcharged
  • Fixed a bug that caused Tactical Marines to gain resources when Overcharged
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Tactical Marines from being able to melee when Overheated
  • Fixed a bug that caused Tactical Marine squads with Tireless to get spread out after being reinforced, or to not benefit from the doctrine when deployed from a Drop Pod
  • Fixed an issue where Tactical Marines could get both Plasma and Flamer upgrades if they were triggered simultaneously

Scout Sniper

Increased rate of fire

A small quality of life improvement when using Scout Snipers will help them feel more agile in combat.

  • Scout Snipers no longer need to wait for a short time before being able to move after having fired their weapons

DOCTRINES

  • Hidden: Now gains a 10-second speed boost after firing

Assault Marine

Jump damage and charge generation time decreased, Power Sword upgrade cost increased

Assault Marines are supposed to be good at striking back line targets and objectives and generally forcing the enemy to engage on their own terms. In the hands of capable players, their offense was simply too effective, especially considering their ability to retreat. We've reduced the rate at which they generate Jump charges to give them more downtime and widen the window for counterplay.

  • The Power Sword upgrade is now available at Tier 2

Jump

Charge Generation Time: 
65 seconds

90 seconds

Power Sword Upgrade

Upgrading your Assault Marines with Power Swords ensured their viability in the late game, but was far too devastating early on. We'll be keeping an eye on their performance after this patch.

Cost: 
75  / 75 

125  / 125 

DOCTRINES

  • Assault Leap: Damage reduced from 75 to 20

Lascannon Devastator

Increased clarity on beam intensity and increased damage

Lascannon Devastators were seriously under performing in their role as the anti-vehicle backbone. They suffered too many disadvantages relative to their counterparts, with none of the show-stopping power.

  • Added a resource bar to display three tiers of beam intensity
  • Beam intensity will no longer decay when switching targets
  • Beam intensity will decay slowly when out of combat
  • Beam intensity will reset when stunned, knocked back, or placed into stasis
Beam Intensity 1 Damage: 
1.5

1.875

Beam Intensity 2 Damage: 
3

3.75

Beam Intensity 3 Damage: 
5.5

6.5


Whirlwind

Bug fixes


BUG FIXES

  • Fixed an issue where Whirlwinds using the Thunderhawk Redeployment doctrine would move back to their starting points

Predator Destructor

Increased health and area of effect

We feel that although Predator Annihilators have a clear role, the same cannot be said for the Predator Destructors. Our changes give the unit more front line resilience and make it lean more heavily towards anti-infantry and anti-heavy infantry army compositions.

  • Visual effects have been updated to match the new area of effect
Health: 
2250

2500

Area of Effect: 
3

5


Kill Team Ironmaw

Base damage slightly increased

We're happy with how balanced Kill Team Ironmaw feels in the early game, but they needed a slight nudge in contrast to Striking Scorpions and Stormboyz.

Ranged Damage: 
4

5

Melee Damage: 
6

8


BUG FIXES

  • Fixed a missing asset spawning when Kill Team Ironmaw was killed during teleport

Jonah Orion

Reduced damage against early game squads

We wanted to bring Jonah in line with the other changes we've made to other Elites that hit the battlefield around the same time - namely, the Weirdboy and Farseer Macha.

Fury of the Ancients

Both inside and outside of his Stonewall, Fury of the Ancients now affects less units.

  • Max number of units hit per squad decreased from unlimited to 5


Gabriel Angelos

Removed the knockback and increased damage from Critical Strike

We are pretty happy with where Gabriel is, but felt he had just a bit too much lockdown. Changes to Critical Strike will stop him from having too many disruption tools without sacrificing his damage output.

  • Removed knockback from Critical Strike

Critical Strike (Passive)

We're toning down the disruption from his Critical Strike.

Damage: 
80

85


Terminators

Added knockback to Teleport and increased Cyclone Missile Barrage rate of fire

We feel that Terminators needed a few small tweaks to make them worth the cost, especially considering how easily they can be shut down with melee tie up.

  • Added knockback on Teleport arrival

Cyclone Missile Barrage

We buffed the speed it takes to fire a full volley of cyclone missiles to give Terminators a bit more punch in late game encounters.

Rate of Fire: 
8 seconds

4 seconds




BUG FIXES

  • Fixed an issue where the Terminator's Devastation doctrine was not applied to units deployed via Drop Pod

Venerable Dreadnought

Increased ranged damage

Though the Venerable Dreadnought's abilities are quite powerful on their own, its ranged damage was too low given the Elite Point cost. We've also added a quality of life improvement that should make Maximal Charge more reliable.

  • Maximal Charge can no longer be intercepted by enemy units in-between the Venerable Dreadnought and its target
Ranged Damage: 
240

350


Imperial Knight Solaria

Increased range and made quality of life changes to Gatling Barrage

While Solaria has high potential, she is also the most costly Space Marine Elite to field. More drawbacks and limited mobility caused players to favour the Imperial Knight Paladin. In particular, the slow on Gets Hot! felt like it was hampering an otherwise cool gameplay moment. Instead, it will function more like a Fury mechanic, where you are rewarded for keeping her in combat.

  • Removed the slow from Gets Hot!
Range: 
40

45

Gatling Barrage

When overheated, Gatling Barrage knocks back enemies. However, the knockback range wasn't large enough to force enemies into the Gatling Barrage area of effect. This change will make this combo much more reliable.

Knockback: 
8

12

Ironstorm Missiles

We've tweaked the range of Ironstorm Missiles to make it a bit harder to catch Solaria unaware.

Range: 
45

55





Additional Changes

  • Increased shields granted by Plant The Standard from 350 to 450
  • Drop pod damage versus buildings currently under construction from 1750 to 350
  • Tip of the Spear: Units must be out of combat for 20 seconds before being able to reinforce from a Listening Post

Population


  • Servitor: Decreased from 2 to 1
  • Assault Marines: Increased from 10 to 13
  • Scout Snipers: Decreased from 10 to 9
  • Heavy Bolter Devastators: Increased from 9 to 11
  • Lascannon Devastators: Increased from 9 to 10
  • Landspeeders: Increased from 10 to 13
  • Dreadnought: Decreased from 18 to 17
  • Predator Annihilator: Decreased from 18 to 17
  • Predator Destructor: Decreased from 18 to 17
  • Whirlwind: Increased from 10 to 12

Eldar

Bonesinger

Warp range decreased and starts on cooldown

Bonesingers gave the Eldar too much early advantage by capturing points and setting up early Webways.

  • Warp now starts on cooldown when the unit is first spawned in

Warp


Range: 
100

70


Dire Avenger

Decreased ranged damage and shields

Players were often able to survive simply with Dire Avengers, allowing for an easy transition to late game units like Falcons. Dire Avengers had far too many strengths with Eldar faction mechanics (like Fleet of Foot and Battle Focus) that made them vastly superior to other units right out of the gate. We've made some changes that will force Eldar players to put Dire Avengers at greater risk when engaging in combat.

Range: 
40

30

DOCTRINES

  • Avenger Shield: Shield bonus reduced from 20% to 10%

Howling Banshee

Lowered cost and damage of Quick Strike upgrade

We fixed some unintended damage stacking that was coming from Quick Strike. Additionally, a combination of Taldeer's Reflective Strike doctrine and the Striking Scorpions' presence doctrine made Banshees too tough as a Tier 1 unit.

Quick Strike


Cost: 
100  / 60 

75  / 50 

Damage: 
65

30


DOCTRINES

  • Hunt: When in stealth, Quick Strike will reveal you in the casting phase
  • Hunt: Speed bonus no longer stacks with Fleet of Foot
  • Hunt: Damage bonus reduced from 100% to 25%
  • Reflective Strike: Instead of being invulnerable, Howling Banshees take half damage

Ranger

Increased Power cost

We increased the amount of power required to field Rangers so that if you're bringing a lot of squads into battle, you'll have to be okay with delaying your tech progress. This should help cut down on the dreaded "Ranger spam" and make it more costly when you mismanage and end up losing them.

Cost: 
330  / 15 

330  / 20 

Cost to unlock: 
100 

125  / 25 

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed a bug where additional firing would not reset their stealth revert timer

Fire Prism

Decreased cost and increased damage

Fire Prisms needed more presence in the late game, so we have transitioned their role to be better against slow or static, heavily-armoured units - such as structures, Nobz, and Wraithblades.

  • Removed knockback from Superheated
Cost: 
100  / 375 

100  / 325 

Ranged Damage: 
275

320

Superheated (Passive)


Damage Type: 
Normal

True

Damage: 
100

150

Activation Time: 
3 seconds

2 seconds



BUG FIXES

  • Fixed an issue where units could not teleport out of a Fire Prism attack

Striking Scorpions

Reduced effectiveness of Hunt

The intention behind giving true damage to Critical Strike was to keep Striking Scorpions relevant in the late game, however it was much too strong at destroying objectives and buildings early on. On top of this, even when players would "successfully" counter them using detection or disruption, stacking bonuses from Hunt and Fleet of Foot rendered the counterplay moot. These changes are targeted at these issues.

  • Speed bonus from Hunt only stacks with Fleet of Foot up to 33%, down from 100%
  • Hunt tooltip now displays speed and damage bonuses
Health: 
1620

1350

Shields: 
1080

900


Hunt

Damage Bonus: 
100%

25%


Critical Strike (Passive)

Damage Type: 
True

Normal



Farseer Macha

Reduced early game effectiveness and increased support capability

To play against Macha, you always need to be mindful of where she throws her spear. In practice, though, this was more difficult than intended when taking into effect the squad-wiping potential of Psyker Blast. We've put a cap on how many units can be affected (especially helpful to your WAAAGH!), while at the same time enhancing its defensive properties to strengthen Macha's existing support utility.

  • Max number of units hit per squad decreased from unlimited to 4

Psyker Blast


Damage: 
150

125

Damage Mitigation: 
50%

75%


BUG FIXES

  • Fixed an issue where Macha's Last Chance doctrine would not affect Elite squad members who spawn through healing

Jain Zar

Reduced damage on Silent Death throw, increased damage on Silent Death return

Despite her strong area of effect and squad-killing potential, Jain Zar's in a good place. We made some minor tweaks to Silent Death to more clearly communicate how the ability works.

  • Changed the visual effects when Silent Death is on its return path
  • Silent Death tooltip now displays the difference in damage when Jain Zar's triskele is returning

Silent Death

We didn't clearly communicate that Silent Death does more damage on the return than on its initial throw. We've tuned the damage as well.

Initial Damage: 
100

75

Return Damage: 
250

275



Warp Spiders

Increased activation time of Slow Mines

We've made a small tweak to give their mines some potential while in the middle of a fight, and we'll continue to observe their effectiveness.

Slow Mines


Activation Time: 
7 seconds

3 seconds


Wraithlord

Reduced the number of squads that could be teleported by Wraith Recall

While presence doctrines are intended to have powerful effects, the Wraithlord's felt too cheap relative to how easy it was to use.

  • Wraith Recall tooltip now displays the number of squads that will be teleported during its casting phase

DOCTRINES

  • Wraith Recall: Range reduced from global to 100
  • Wraith Recall: Can now only teleport up to 10 units, instead of an unlimited amount

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed a bug where the Wraithlord's Ethereal Wall would not always block projectiles


Additional Changes

  • Edlritch Storm: True damage per tick reduced from 5 to 2.5
  • Eldritch Storm: Lightning bolt delay decreased from 0.75 to 0.25 in Conduit form
  • Webway Gates health decreased from 700 to 600
  • Fixed an issue where destroying a connected Webway while it relocates could prevent any further Webways from being connected
  • Improved Webways: No longer allows Webway Gates to relocate in Tier 1
  • Improved Webways: Health regeneration can now only occur after 10 seconds of being out of combat
  • Improved Webways: Relocation cast time increased from 4 seconds to 10 seconds

Population

  • Dire Avengers: Increased from 6 to 8
  • Howling Banshees: Increased from 10 to 11
  • Dark Reapers: Increased from 8 to 11
  • Rangers: Increased from 8 to 9
  • Shadow Spectres: Increased from 9 to 12
  • Wraithblades: Increased from 12 to 16
  • Vyper: Increased from 5 to 9
  • Falcon: Increased from 12 to 17
  • Fire Prism: Increased from 15 to 19

Orks

Gretchin

Added more utility to Find the Goods

DOCTRINES

  • Find the Goods: Places a single mine on top of the Scrap pile that you teleport to
  • Find the Goods: Now stealths for 15 seconds, or until detected


Boy

Reduced stacking movement speed from multiple sources

Combining WAAAGH Towers, Shout, and the Get 'Em Boyz doctrine made Boyz too hard to run away from.

DOCTRINES

  • Get 'Em Boyz: Decreased Shout speed bonus stacking with WAAAGH! from 100% to 50%

Shoota Boy

Increased health

Shoota Boyz have great damage for their cost, but were too easily destroyed by area of effect abilities. An increase in health and nerfs to various area of effect abilities should put them in a good spot.

Health: 
840

1000


Tankbusta

Made a slight change in how the Squig Bomb Mine functions

DOCTRINES

  • Squig Bomb Mine: Now functions like a squig bomb and only becomes a mine if it cannot find a target

Trukk

Reduced damage of Suicide Bomma doctrine

DOCTRINES

  • Suicide Bomma: Damage reduced from 350 to 200
  • Suicide Bomma: Damage versus objectives reduced from 350 to 100
  • Suicide Bomma: Max number of units hit per squad decreased from unlimited to 5

Deffkopta

Increased health

Despite their harassment potential, we found that they just weren't healthy enough to transition into late game army compositions. We've upped their health to help them scale better.

Health: 
450

550

Killa Kan

Reduced rokkit range on Long Range Rokkit doctrine

  • Long Range Rokkit: The number of rokkits remains visible on the health bar under more cases

DOCTRINES

  • Long Range Rokkits: Rokkits should only travel a certain distance and expire after a duration

Deff Dread

Buffed the shields from the Bigga Scrap Shield doctrine

Considering that Deff Dreads can't move while the shield is channeling, we increased the effectiveness of their shields so their lack of mobility isn't a death sentence.

DOCTRINES

  • Bigga Scrap Shield: Shields increased from 300 to 500
  • Bigga Scrap Shield: Duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds

Big Trakk

Removed stun and replaced with slow

Combined with their range, the Big Trakk's ability to keep high-value enemy targets stunned was pretty brutal. They now slow instead of stun - keeping their crowd control utility, but making them less frustrating to play against.

  • Kill 'Em Far now applies a slow to vehicles, instead of a stun
Cost: 
100  / 350 

100  / 325 

Salvage Cost: 
50  / 175 

50  / 165 


Stormboyz

Reduced Suicide Bomma's objective damage

Stormboyz are in a good spot. They're relatively easy to kill with focused fire and both forms of their Suicide Bomma can be dodged - provided you've been scouting! Despite this, its damage was too effective versus static buildings and against Orks.

  • Suicide Bomma's damage versus objectives reduced from 350 to 175
  • Max number of units hit per squad decreased from unlimited to 5

Suicide Bomma (Scrap)

  • When upgraded with scrap, Suicide Bomma's damage versus objectives reduced by 50%
  • Upgraded Suicide Bomma will no longer explode unintentionally over certain types of terrain

DOCTRINES

  • Kamakazee: Changed hotkey from Q to X

Weirdboy Zappnoggin

Reduced burst damage

Like Macha, we hoped that the use of scouting would negate much of the Weirdboy's power, but Ere We Go excelled at punishing enemy squads even when they weren't particularly out of position.

  • Area of effect damage removed from ranged attack
Damage Type: 
Normal

True

Scrap Blast

Scrap Blast's damage was overpowering, especially against Orks. We've capped the area of effect damage and instead increased its defensive utility.

  • Max number of units hit per squad decreased from unlimited to 5
Shields: 
200

225


Ere We Go

  • Removed damage from this ability


Fist of Gork

Fist of Gork's travel time used to average about 4 seconds, but would vary based on range i.e. it was faster when at close range. We've removed this mechanic and made it a flat 3.5 seconds, regardless of range.

Travel Time: 
Varied

3.5 seconds



Mad Dread

Increased health and decreased Tunnel cooldown

Increasing the Mad Dread's mobility will make it feel like a stronger Elite choice.

Health: 
4250

4750

Tunnel

Increasing Tunnel usage in the middle of fights gives the Mad Dread more presence on the battlefield, and helps with his survivability.

Cooldown: 
45 seconds

30 seconds


Gorkanaut

Increased damage

While Rokkit Fist is quite strong, the Gorkanaut's basic attacks and All Da Dakka needed a bit more love.

Ranged Damage: 
15

20

All Da Dakka

Damage: 
80

100


BUG FIXES

  • Fixed an issue where All Da Dakka did no damage to Shield Generators
  • Fixed an issue with cancelling the Gorkanaut's Rokkit Fist ability
  • Fixed a bug where Loot would sometimes fail to work


Additional Changes

  • Fixed an issue where Roks could become unresponsive if picked up and dropped

Population

  • Boyz: Decreased from 8 to 7
  • Shoota Boyz: Increased from 8 to 9
  • Nobz: Decreased from 25 to 16
  • Deffgun Lootas: Increased from 8 to 9
  • Tankbustas: Increased from 6 to 10
  • Trukks: Increased from 8 to 9
  • Deffkoptas: Increased from 5 to 7
  • Killa Kans: Increased from 10 to 11
  • Deff Dreads: Increased from 12 to 15
  • Big Trakks: Increased from 18 to 19


Bug Fixes

Achievements

  • Fixed assorted issues with achievements not being awarded when completing the campaign

Audio

  • Fixed several issues with odd audio bursts when restarting missions or progressing to certain post-mission screens
  • Fixed incorrect sound effects on Sky Portal death
  • Fixed missing sound effects on Ork Shoota Boyz
  • Fixed an issue with the level up sound effects playing on repeat
  • Fixed an issue where setting Voice volume to zero was not silencing unit barks

Campaign

  • Fixed an issue where mission progress wasn't properly carried over between PCs
  • Fixed an issue where Assault Marines could bypass a gate in Mission 1
  • Fixed an issue when respawning Gorgutz in an unplayable space in Mission 2
  • Fixed an issue with Eldar attackers not assaulting the player's base in Mission 4
  • Fixed missing animation on a bridge in Mission 4
  • Fixed missing dialogue at the end of Mission 4
  • Fixed a rare bug that would block progression when defending your base in Mission 5
  • Fixed issues with deck gun effects and sound effects when loading a save in Mission 7
  • Tuned Diomedes' health in Mission 8
  • Fixed an issue where units joining the player could become hostile in Mission 11
  • Fixed an issue with Wazmakka's behaviour when attacked from range in Mission 12
  • Fixed an issue with debrief imagery in Mission 12
  • Fixed an issue with stacking Webway Gates in Mission 13
  • Fixed a rare crash when destroying the first Webway Gate in Mission 14
  • Fixed an issue with missing health bars on some units in Mission 16
  • Fixed an issue with missing objective indicators in Mission 16
  • Fixed an issue where Elites would not gain experience at the end of Mission 16
  • Fixed issues with damage from Mission 17's boss's swipe attacks
  • Fixed issues with boss behaviour in Mission 17

Save & Load

  • Fixed an issue where incorrect Elites could appear in some save games
  • Fixed an issue where Jonah Orion's Stonewall ability would become invisible when loading into a game saved while the ability was active

Multiplayer

  • Fixed an exploit where follow camera (') could be used to track enemy stealth units and units hidden in the fog of war
  • Fixed an issue where paused AI games were not actually paused

Units & Abilities

  • Fixed a broken interaction between Wazmakka's Traktor Beam and Stormboyz' Suicide Bomma
  • Fixed an animation glitch on the Striking Scorpions
  • Fixed an issue where players could force units out of a Falcon transport ship over a chasm, instantly killing them
  • Fixed an issue where Kyre's Eldritch Winds could move Deathstorm Drop Pods
  • Fixed an overly large hit box on the Doctrine Chapel

User Interface

  • Fixed stacking debuff icons caused by Gorgutz' melee attacks
  • Fixed inconsistencies with audio and video options and forced restarts
  • Adjusted several incorrect ability and upgrade icons
  • Fixed an issue where some tooltips would be missing text for non-deployed Elites
  • Fixed incorrect behaviour on several gameplay UI options
  • Updated the reticule for the Imperial Knight Paladin's Reaper Chainsword Sweep

Art

  • Fixed additional instances of effects seen through the fog of war
  • Fixed an issue where Shadow Spectre's beam animation would not pause when the game paused
  • Fixed missing effects on Kill Team Ironmaw squad member with the missile launcher
  • Fixed missing effects on the Temporal Mine ability
  • Fixed missing effects when the Venereable Dreadnought is destroyed
  • Fixed timing issues on destruction effects for resource add-ons
  • Fixed an issue where the effects and sound effects for Pin did not end
  • Fixed an issue with persistent teleport effects when the target building is destroyed

Offline Play

  • Fixed assorted crashes and soft locks caused by losing internet connection during various screen transitions

Performance

  • Improved performance on 4K monitors in various option and info screens
  • Improved performance when using the Roks ability



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